A clock transition for a future optical frequency standard with trapped atoms

Abstract

We report the first direct excitation of the strongly forbidden 5s2 1S0-5s5p 3P0 transition in 87Sr. Its frequency is 429 228 004 235 (20) kHz. A resonant laser creates a small leak in a magneto-optical trap (MOT): atoms build up to the metastable 3P0 state and escape the trapping process, leading to a detectable decrease in the MOT fluorescence. This line has a natural width of 10^{-3} Hz and can be used for a new generation of optical frequency standards using atoms trapped in a light shift free dipole trap.

4 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (30)

• Progress in Atomic Fountains at LNE-SYRTE
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• Possibility of an ultra-precise optical clock using the $6^1{S}_0\to 6^3{P}_0^o$ transition in ${}^{171,173}$Yb atoms held in an optical lattice
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• A high-accuracy optical clock via three-level coherence in neutral bosonic ${}^{88}$Sr
• Observation and absolute frequency measurements of the 1S0 - 3P0 optical clock transition in ytterbium
• Properties of metastable alkaline-earth-metal atoms calculated using an accurate effective core potential
• Hyperfine quenching of the metastable ${}^3{P}_{0,2}$ states in divalent atoms
• Relativistic effects in two valence electron atoms and ions and the search for variation of the fine structure constant
• Precision spectroscopy and density-dependent frequency shifts in ultracold Sr
• An Optical Lattice Clock with Spin-polarized 87Sr Atoms
• Controlling dipole-dipole frequency shifts in a lattice-based optical atomic clock
• Doppler-free spectroscopy of the 1S0-3P0 optical clock transition in laser-cooled fermionic isotopes of neutral mercury
• Accuracy Evaluation of an Optical Lattice Clock with Bosonic Atoms
• Spontaneous decay of an atom excited in a dense and disordered atomic ensemble: quantum microscopic approach
• Accurate spectroscopy of Sr atoms
• Cooling and trapping of ultra-cold strontium isotopic mixtures
• Efficient magneto-optical trapping of Yb atoms with a violet laser diode
• Reflection of resonant light from a plane surface of an ensemble of motionless point scatters: Quantum microscopic approach
• Laser cooling and trapping of atomic strontium for ultracold atom physics, high-precision spectroscopy and quantum sensors
• Studies of the ${}^1$S${}_0$--${}^3$P${}_0$ transition in atomic ytterbium for optical clocks and qubit arrays
• Cooling of Sr to high phase-space density by laser and sympathetic cooling in isotopic mixtures
• Could Energy Decoherence due to Quantum Gravity be observed?
• Application of lasers to ultracold atoms and molecules
• Intercombination line frequencies in ${}^{171}$Yb validated with the clock transition